Curse

Thanas · Dec 06, 2005, 03:25 AM // 03:25

Profession: necro/mesmer
Name: Thorns
Type: PvE/GeneralPvP
Category: Support
Attributes:
Inspiration - 11
Curses - 12 + 1 + 3
Soul Reaping - 6 + 1

Skills Set Mantra of Resolve (Inspiration)
Enfeeble (Curses)
Spirit of Failure (Inspiration)
Price of Failure (Curses)
Energy Tap (Inspiration)
Spiteful Spirit {Elite} (Curses)
Parastic Bond (Curses)
Res Signet (No Attribute)

Summary:
I am writing this summary as though playing PvP arenas, although what has been said can easily be apllied to PvE and on some level larger PvP games. The skills are ideally used in the order shown and against melee characters.

Mantra of Resolve (Inspiration) This skill is essential for any necro in my opinion due to the long cast times of most necro spells. 11 points in Inspiration takes this skill down to 3 energy lost when an interuption is blocked.

Enfeeble (Curses) This skill should be used to keep foes weakened, warriors primarily and rangers secondly. When coming up against warriors and rangers, the closest should be enfeebled first, then the next, until you have a chain of enfeebled melee foes, as mentioned warriors are your main target. This should always be kept in mind. It should be refreshed as often as is needed.

Spirit of Failure (Inspiration) This skill is two fold. It acts to helps regenerate energy and also increases the chance of an enemy foe missing. It should be used in conjunction with price of failure, to increase the chance that a foe will miss, thus increasing the chance of gaining energy.

Price of Failure (Curses) As above this skill is used to increase a foes chance of missing, thus helping to increase energy levels whist doing damage.

Energy Tap (Inspiration) This spell is sell explanatory. When low on energy this is very useful. It can also be used to harass monks and it upsets warriors since they have very small energy pools.

Spiteful Spirit {Elite} (Curses) This is the real damage dealer. When fighting warriors or rangers, this should be used after piling on the aforementioned hexes. It works especially well when placed on multiple warriors chasing a monk. They tend to kill each other or at least disengage. If fighting non melee characters this spell still has its uses, since it activates when skills are used also.

Parastic Bond (Curses) This is used a cover hex for SS, which also acts to increase health occasionally. In any case this should be used on as many player as possible, maximising health boosts.

Notes & Concerns:

My main concern with this build is that there is very little self heal bar parasitic bond. However I am a firm believer that no one build should be able to do everything and that teamwork is necessary in order for it to be effective. For this reason a monk is always useful to team with. Also ele knockdowns in the form of gale etc are problematic, as well as hammer blows. Mesmers can also be annoying with backfire etc. Another annoyance is W/N with plague touch who can remove the effects of enfeeble. These players need constant attention and thus reduce your number of targets. I also tend to use Vilnars Staff with this build.

Credit Me!

I have posted this build in the necro build submissions area. Due to the nature of that area no comments can be made there, thus I have re-posted here so that comments can be made. Please be aware that I will completely ignore any flames!

Vexed Arcanist · Dec 06, 2005, 05:34 AM // 05:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thanas

Profession: necro/mesmer
Name: Thorns
Type: PvE/GeneralPvP
Category: Support
Attributes:
Inspiration - 11
Curses - 12 + 1 + 3
Soul Reaping - 6 + 1

Skills Set Mantra of Resolve (Inspiration)
Enfeeble (Curses)
Spirit of Failure (Inspiration)
Price of Failure (Curses)
Energy Tap (Inspiration)
Spiteful Spirit {Elite} (Curses)
Parastic Bond (Curses)
Res Signet (No Attribute)

LOL I like it. Consider taking points out of Soul Reaping and taking Illusion to 4. Replace Parasitic for Distortion. Yes, I know Parasitic is a sweet cover hex but you have alot of hexes you can cover Spiteful with. Drop Energy Tap for Channeling, Energy Tap is a rather bad skill, slow to cast, slow to recycle.

Serps · Dec 06, 2005, 06:29 AM // 06:29

Without Parasitic, all he can spam to get Channelling benefits is enfeeble...

twicky_kid · Dec 06, 2005, 06:53 AM // 06:53

replace energy tap with channeling

i'd leave the rest alone it looks good to me. just remember to cast spiteful on the ghost and cover it constantly.

Vexed Arcanist · Dec 06, 2005, 09:07 AM // 09:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by Serps

Without Parasitic, all he can spam to get Channelling benefits is enfeeble...

He has enfeeble, but yes channeling would be better served to have Parasitic as well.

Thanas · Dec 11, 2005, 07:00 PM // 19:00

Thanks for the postive feedback. I will look into what you've suggested and will report back here.

Thanas · Dec 12, 2005, 03:23 PM // 15:23

Firstly, I've decided I can't get rid of parastic since it is my only self heal. Not only that it does serve as an excellent cover. Its also cheap and quick to charge and cast. The other hexes in my build are integral, take a while to charge and thus cannot be used to cover SS. SO I will not budge on that issue. Secondly, I tried using chanelling, however the effects as always were minimal. It did keep my energy levels higher for a little longer, but ultimately there is no one spell I really spam. All that I really get out of channelling is a reduction in spell cost. Spamming is thus pointless, since I am wasting energy. Finally I tried distortion. This was the only change which made any sense to me. I use it when warriors attack me. This ussually happens after they take lots of dmg and dont get anywhere with the groups monk. After casting all other hexes i.e. spirit and price of failure, SS and parasitic behind the Resolve mantra I put this matra in place. With a warriors fast attack speed I start charging my energy, since each miss gives me a surplus of 2 energy and they are very likely to miss with a 25% from both spirit and price and then 75% from the stance. My energy regen effectively covers the cost of this mantra. Also because of missing almost constantly, warriors take much more in the way of dmg, since price of failure is almost always activated. I find its best to stand near the enemy caster whilst the warrior is chasing you down. He is ussually so annoyed that he can't kill you that he forgets about SS and he damages casters in the vicinity. This charging of energy also allows you to cast spiteful on other casters thus increasing the mayhem.

zling · Apr 22, 2006, 12:01 AM // 00:01

you put all of your eggs in the same basket. smart warriors wouldnt try to attack through all of your hexes, yes by doing nothing you're pretty much shutting them down but you're also losing your source of damage and energy and thus you get pretty much shut down yourself...
will work great against stupid warriors who will just suicide on you with all these hexes though, and thus it should work great in arenas and PvE as well, but not in non random PvP

Hella Good · Apr 22, 2006, 01:26 AM // 01:26

Lets see: 3 cats, 3 cast, 2 cast, 1 cast - that's you hexes. To make sure that a hex stays on, you'll have to do SoF/PoF + PB, then PoF/SoF + PB, then Spites + PB... Unless you are making good use of Fast casting as a Mesmer, long cast hexes are risky, esp. so many of them... If you could do a long cast hex + short cast + short cast that works well (ex.: Life Siphon + Faintheartedness + Parasitic Bond). No one is going to let you stack 2 3 cast hexes on a target... Reminds me, Holy Veil is going to be pretty harsh on you.

Bel Ebih · Apr 22, 2006, 06:41 AM // 06:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by zling

it should work great in arenas and PvE as well, but not in non random PvP

Yeah, I agree, though the OP does state he presents this as though playing in PvP arenas.

As for running SS in non-random PvP, particularly HoH, the build I use is this:

Soul Reaping: 10 (9+1)
Curses: 16 (12+4)
Inspiration Magic: 9

- Spiteful Spirit [Elite] (Curses)
- Suffering (Curses)
- Malaise (Curses)
- Enfeeble (Curses)
- Parasitic Bond (Curses)
- Rend Enchantments (Curses)
- Mantra of Resolve (Inspiration Magic)
- Resurrection Signet ()

Pretty much a standard SS build for balanced groups build I'd think, though it can be modified as needed. For example, sometimes I will drop either Malaise, Enfeeble, or Par Bond for Insp Hex. The point is, if playing something like this in 8v8, to forget about self-heals and to not concentrate on all out Warrior hate since it is a much more varied enviroment.